All good writing begins with terrible first efforts.
(Anne Lamott)

Obama as us

Over at Flickr, the White House just put up about a dozen pictures from the State of the Union speech last night. I am most interested in this one, which seems a suitable visual analog to Obama's rhetorical efforts to identify with the audience outside of the chamber:

I know that for many Americans watching right now, the state of our
economy is a concern that rises above all others. And rightly so. If
you haven't been personally affected by this recession, you probably
know someone who has - a friend; a neighbor; a member of your family.
You don't need to hear another list of statistics to know that our
economy is in crisis, because you live it every day. It's the worry you
wake up with and the source of sleepless nights. It's the job you
thought you'd retire from but now have lost; the business you built
your dreams upon that's now hanging by a thread; the college acceptance
letter your child had to put back in the envelope. The impact of this
recession is real, and it is everywhere.

Obama worked hard last night to speak about the experiences of these kinds of Americans. Which, in a way, makes this photograph the visual equivalent of those ten letters he reads every night.

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